Background
Hearing is the most essential perceptive sense for individual development, especially during childhood, contributing to a child’s ability to interact with other people. Its deprivation can have serious consequences on various aspects, such as speech and language acquisition and prereading skills. This study aimed to perform hearing screening of school children aged 4 and 7 years to detect the prevalence, incidence, and degree of hearing loss (HL) in this age group.
Participants and methods
This study was a cross-sectional investigation that included all children aged 4–7 years from all primary schools in Quesnay City, Minufiyah governorate, Egypt, from November 2014 to March 2016 (number of children=4500). A total number of 9000 ears were studied. All children included in the study underwent otoscopic examination, followed by two stages of school-based hearing screening. All children who failed the second stage of school-based hearing rescreening were referred for full audiological evaluation.
Results
Otoscopic examinations revealed the following: 54.2% of ears had normal ears 21.3% had impacted wax, 13.6% had congested tm, and 10.8% had perforated tm. Twenty percent (1800 ears) failed the first stage of school-based hearing screening. Six percent (540 ears) failed the second stage of school-based hearing rescreening. A total of 529 ears were diagnosed as having HL as follows: 427 (80.7%) had conductive hearing loss, 81 (15.3%) had sensorineural hearing loss, and 21 (4%) had mixed HL of different degrees − 265 (50.1%) had mild, 132 (24.9%) had moderate, 85 (16.1%) had moderately severe, 40 (7.6%) had severe, and seven (1.3%) had profound degree of HL.
Conclusion
A systematic screening program with correct equipment, trained personnel, and adequate follow-up services will allow children with educationally significant HL to be accurately diagnosed and managed to provide them with equal hearing opportunities.